UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES OF MARINE FISHERIES. 19 
for some time in the sea, and that they, as fishermen, have a 
moral right to the fish in the sea. The proprietors claim that, 
but for their rivers, which contain the spawning grounds of the 
salmon, and which are for two years the nursery of the young 
fish before ever they go to sea at all, there would be no salmon 
for the fishermen to catch. Further, they point out that they are 
at considerable expense in various ways, but chiefly in providing 
watchers to protect the spawning fish—and that, considering all 
this, it is very hard lines that men who have done absolutely 
nothing for the welfare of the salmon should have the first and 
best chance of capturing them. Each of these arguments appears 
to their supporters unanswerable, and each party regards the 
other as defrauding it of its just rights. This is no exaggeration 
of the case. Feeling runs very high, and in the fight to obtain 
each its share the poor unfortunate salmon goes to the wall. As 
my interests are centred entirely in the welfare of the salmon, 
perhaps I may claim to take an impartial view of the matter, and 
I have a very severe indictment to bring against both parties. 
SPORTSMEN FIGHTING AGAINST EACH OTHER. 
First, I will deal with the sporting interest. Here I find the 
camp again divided against itself. The interests on a salmon 
river are so various and of such different degree, owing to the 
large number of proprietors and their position on the river, that 
an adjustment of the rights of each seems to be impossible. 
When once a salmon is out of the sea and safely into fresh water, 
he belongs legally to the owner of the land through which the 
river runs. His value undergoes a change, for now he is not 
regarded solely as a marketable product at so much a pound, but 
as a sporting asset to any estate on which he may be found. He 
is angled for with rod and line, and the value of any stretch of 
salmon river is enhanced by the number of salmon which can be 
taken from it in ways which are according to the accepted idea 
of sport. Here we have scores, sometimes hundreds, of proprie- 
tors on the same river, each with an inducement to take as many 
salmon as he can from his particular stretch, and in many cases 
the feeling between upper and lower proprietors is as bitter as 
their feeling against the fisherman and his nets. There is more 
reason for this than might appear on the surface. The most 
valuable parts of a river from the salmon’s point of view are 
